DR. CAROLINE CHARPENTIER
**Update** In August 2023, I will be starting my lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. I will be hiring research assistants, graduate students, and postdocs with interests/skills in computational modelling, social neuroscience, and autism research. Please do not hesitate to reach out or check out the 'Join us!' page for more details!
I am currently a postdoctoral scholar research associate, fully funded by a NIMH K99 Pathway to Independence award, and working with John O'Doherty, Ralph Adolphs, and Yisong Yue at Caltech. The specific project involves investigating the behavioral, computational and neural mechanisms of social learning, their variation across individuals, and alterations in autism. Before that I was a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow with Benedetto De Martino and John O'Doherty.
I completed my PhD at University College London in the UK in 2016, co-supervised by Jon Roiser and Tali Sharot, and working on the interaction between emotion and decision-making.
In my research, I develop behavioral tasks, combined with neuroimaging (fMRI) and computational modelling techniques, to study how people learn and make decisions in social contexts and under various affective states. My approach is multidisciplinary, at the interface of behavioral economics, psychology, neuroscience and psychiatry.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Social Learning and Decision-Making
Computational models underlying social learning: how do we learn from observing others? How do we integrate social and experiential learning?
Information-seeking and Curiosity
Motivational biases during information gathering: how do people value knowledge and ignorance?
EDUCATION & TRAINING
2016-Present
California Institute of Technology, USA
Senior Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate (Sept 2021-)
Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow (May 2020-Aug 2021)
Postdoctoral Scholar in Neuroscience (Oct 2016-April 2020)
Mentors: John O'Doherty, Ralph Adolphs, Yisong Yue, Benedetto De Martino (UCL)
Emotion and Decision-Making
How do emotions (emotional states, mood, affective disorders) influence decisions?
2011-2016
University College London, UK
MS & PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience.
Advisors: Prof. Jon Roiser & Dr. Tali Sharot.
PhD Thesis: The interaction between emotion and economic decision-making. [PDF]
2008-2011
Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS), Lyon, France
BS & MS in Biology & Biosciences
2006-2008
Lycee Joffre, Montpellier, France
Preparatory School ("Classe Preparatoire aux Grandes Ecoles) for competitive entry into ENS.
Information-seeking in Social Contexts
In today's connected, social media and "fake news" world, what can we do about polarization of opinions, whereby people tend to only seek information from sources and people that agree with them?